To all that have and are serving:

Thank you.

From me as well!! Enjoy your weekend, you earned it!!

I tip my hat to the servicemen from the good old USA. Proud for what you give to our country.

I’ll take this one further. Thank you to the family and spouses of those who are serving!

Was at an event for the American Sniper movie, the gentleman presenting said it made him feel guilty when he was thanked. All he wanted to do was go overseas and serve his country. His mom, sister, wife, and etc didn’t make a choice. They were truly the ones to thank!

This is a good weekend to thank a veteran but we need to remember what Memorial Day is all about and that is about the men and woman that are no longer with us that gave everything for this country. I served in the military with a couple tours overseas and not trying to come across rude but it is very hard for us vets when someone comes up to us and thanks us for our service on Memorial Day when we are suppose to be thanking the men and women that were next to us that never made it home.

Actually Memorial Day is to remember all the vets who have passed on, whether in battle, on/off duty, retired, honorably discharged, doesn’t matter. At the Memorial day services they do a roll call of ALL the deceased vets, even those lucky enough to have served and survived, who are no longer with us.

Big_g you are correct. I should have checked how I worded that sentence but what you said is exactly what I meant. Hope everyone has a good Memorial Day weekend.

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America. Over two dozen cities and towns claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it’s difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day.

Regardless of the exact date or location of its origins, one thing is clear – Memorial Day was borne out of the Civil War and a desire to honor our dead. It was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed. The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.

On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.

The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war).

It is now observed in almost every state on the last Monday in May with Congressional passage of the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 – 363). This helped ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays, though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19th in Texas; April 26th in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10th in South Carolina; and June 3rd (Jefferson Davis’ birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.

Huntindave wrote:

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America.

Well, every Memorial service I have been to, they read the Roll Call of the Deceased…. they read EVERY name of EVERY Veteran buried in the surrounding cemetaries. I will tell them they are doing it wrong.

big_g wrote:

Well, every Memorial service I have been to, they read the Roll Call of the Deceased…. they read EVERY name of EVERY Veteran buried in the surrounding cemetaries. I will tell them they are doing it wrong.

Please do. Doing something wrong over and over and over, does NOT make it right.

I am really struggling with how to reply to something so absurd…. then I decided it is not worth it and I will continue to remember ALL the fallen veterans, not just those who died in battle. If you think that is wrong, we can disagree, I defend your right to that.

big_g wrote:

I will continue to remember ALL the fallen veterans, not just those who died in battle. If you think that is wrong, we can disagree, I defend your right to that.

X2, the point I was trying to make is Memorial Day is not Veterans Day. There is a difference.

Speaking with one of my customers who was a Marine Vietnam vet, and after thanking him for his service, he says it feels good nowadays with all the people that thank him. Much different from when he came out of the service.

I go out of my way especially on the couple holidays we have devoted for them and still give thanks. I can’t sympathize with the loss of a family or friend in warfare, but I bet a lot of vets can, and if I can bring just a tiny bit of feel good as I was told it does, then I will continue to do so whether that hero is above or below ground.

What a great country we live in that we are free to argue about such a thing. Memorial Day and Veterans Day are important celebrations of the sacrifices made by real heros who deserve way more than just a couple days out of the year.

I mean no disrespect to any of our veterans. We have a special day to honor all veterans, it’s called Veterans Day.

Memorial day is a day to honor and remember those veterans that died defending our country. We have other examples that are narrow in scope as well, such as the the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall which honors those veterans whom died in the Vietnam war.

Big-G,
According to your logic, any veteran who served in Vietnam should have his name on that wall, not just those that were killed in the war.

Yes ALL veterans should be remembered. Those veterans killed in battle are memorialized with Memorial Day.

SHEESH !!!!

Huntindave wrote:

I mean no disrespect to any of our veterans. We have a special day to honor all veterans, it’s called Veterans Day.

Memorial day is a day to honor and remember those veterans that died defending our country. We have other examples that are narrow in scope as well, such as the the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall which honors those veterans whom died in the Vietnam war.

Big-G,
According to your logic, any veteran who served in Vietnam should have his name on that wall, not just those that were killed in the war.

Yes ALL veterans should be remembered. Those veterans killed in battle are memorialized with Memorial Day.

We need to remember the fallen: this includes all veterans who died during the wars such as veterans who also died of disease, even snake bite in jungle warefare, or on the flight deck, plane or chopper crews that didn’t make it back. Not just those directly killed by enemy fire.

joc wrote:

We need to remember the fallen: this includes all veterans who died during the wars such as veterans who also died of disease, even snake bite in jungle warefare, or on the flight deck, plane or chopper crews that didn’t make it back. Not just those directly killed by enemy fire.

Yes, killed in battle includes all the above.

My dad is 90. Still calls it decoration day. God bless him. We went to 4 cemeteries today to decorate. How cool is that!!

HuntingDave I respectfully disagree, all Veterans who have passed are remembered on Memorial Day. Not just those who passed in the battlefields. In Arlington National Cematery the “old Guard” is not going to put memorial flags only on the markers of those who fell in combat but on all those graves of every fallen Service Member. No matter when / how they died.

In the article you site they can’t even agree on where the practice started let alone the details.

As a service member of 22 years and going I will use this weekend to honor those who served and passed, and Veterans Day for those who served and are still with us.

Cheers
Kyle

Our freedom was and is not free. A heart felt thank you to each one of our vets and families.

Oye. Can we all agree Memorial Day we remember all Veterans who passed on and that thanking vets who are still with us is OK? And not just today, but any day?

Arguing semantics for anyone who serves the country by being a member of the military is…well, let me use the nicest word I can think of right now. Frustrating.

usafcatm, we see things the same, that is exactly how I was taught when I was in the military.

For what it is worth, not all war related deaths associated with the Vietnam War, happened in Vietnam. Many came home and passed away on our own soil, from wounds nobody could see. Some in the immediate years that followed, others decades later. It happens everyday from the Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns also. Nuff said from me.